“I see. You folks live around here?”
I scoff, swiping my wet nose. “Why would you think we don?—”
AJ squeezes my tender hip. “Yes, sir. We live a couple blocks over on Leclair in The Vestry.”
Officer Patton’s blue eyes volley between us until he nods. “Looks like you all been out celebrating. Where you been?”
“The Ritz-Carlton. My job had a New Year’s Eve party there. We had a few drinks… and left early, and things got a little blurry when we got home,” AJ replies.
I had one drink—a French 75. And that blurriness didn’t start at home. It started well before we got home.
“We got a tricky staircase in our apartment that gets dangerous sometimes. I don’t know about you, but too many flutes of champagne and a winding staircase…” He whistles, looking down at my face and pinching my swollen chin. “I tell her all the time to slow down when she’s running up and down that thing, but she never listens. She fell, and I panicked…so then she panicked. I ran to grab some ice and a rag, and I came back and she was gone.”
His eyes soften, and mine almost do too, because his are sincere. They always are. Even when he’s mad at me for silly little things like accepting a compliment from his teammate.
Officer Patton nods until the light from the lamppost shines on AJ’s broad nose.
He crinkles his eyebrows. “AJ Boyd?”
AJ nods in response. “Yes, sir.”
“Wait a minute—New York Knights wide receiver AJ Boyd?”
The suspicion melts from Officer Patton’s face, and he brings a balled fist to his lips.
I’ve seen this same childlike glint on hundreds of other grown men’s faces in airport lounges, Michelin-starred restaurants, and I’ve even seen it on my Uncle Kenny’s when he talks about AJ. Now I can say I’ve seen it on a racist, misogynistic cop’s face.
“Jeez, you should’ve said somethin earlier. I…I didn’t mean to hold you and your lady up on New Year’s Eve.”
For a moment I hope he’ll ask more—like why I ran barefoot out of our apartment after accidentally falling down two flights of stairs, or why we left a posh New Year’s Eve party two hours before midnight, but nobody cares about any of that because two men are having “man-talk” like my Aunt Faye calls it.
Officer Patton pulls his radio to his lips again, and a spark of hope lights in my stomach. “10-90N…”
He holds up a finger. “I’m just letting dispatch know everything’s good.”
“You…you can tell us that?” I stammer out, swiping another trickle of blood from my nose.
AJ squeezes my upper arm while Officer Patton babbles to the dispatcher.
Once he’s done explaining there’s no perceived crime for him to fight, he drops the radio and reaches into his pants pocket. “Can you take a picture with me so I can send it to my kid? He’s not gonna believe this. It’s freakin AJ Boyd.”
I’m shuffled to the side in my torn, bloody dress while they take a selfie in the middle of the crowded sidewalk.
AJ paints on that perfect smile I love and tosses up an innocent peace sign while Officer Patton points to him as if he’s not real. Afterward, Officer Patton pulls his phone out of their faces, swiping through the pictures and shaking his head.
“Wow. Thank you, Mr. Boyd. You know, we were worried on draft night. I mean, a prissy Alpine kid coming to the Knights from some no-name black school that’s only known for basketball? What are we in—The Twilight Zone? But then you had that one-handed catch against the Dolphins in your freakin first game.”
He scoffs, and AJ thrusts his head back, conjuring up his best fake laugh.
“We might not have been the AFC champs this year, but next season it’s all us. Knights Nation, baby! All day!” Officer Patton thrusts his hand out for a proper handshake this time, and AJ obliges without hesitation.
He flings AJ’s hand up and down. “Holy crap, Seth is gonna freak out. You folks have a good night!”
People are staring now—not at me, of course. They’re all looking at AJ and whispering as Officer Patton scampers away from us. He stumbles over the curb, putting his phone to his ear and looking over his shoulder to make sure it was really AJ Boyd he had taken a selfie with.
“Seth…” he pants, pulling open the driver’s side door to his SUV. “You won’t believe who I met…”
His voice trails off as he closes himself inside.
